On Aug. 16, 2022, Hemsworth posted a “minimal equipment” workout via a video on his Instagram page. During the routine, he pushed through functional bodyweight exercises on the deck of a navy ship that was part of the set for the box office hit Top Gun: Maverick. Check it out below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth)

[Related: How to Do the Goblet Squat for Lower Body Size and Mobility]

Here’s a rundown of Hemsworth’s bodyweight workout on the navy ship:

Chris Hemsworth’s “Minimal Equipment” Workout

• Squats: 1 x 5 
• Bear crawl: Five meters
• Sit-through: 1 x 10 
• Push-ups: 1 x 10 
• Mountain climber: 1 x 10 on each side 
• Static lunge: 1 x 5 on each leg
• Ice skater lunge: 1 x 5 on each side
• Rest for 60 seconds
• 10 rounds in total

According to Hemsworth, this flexible routine requires limited equipment and can be performed pretty much anywhere. The 38-year-old will share similar workouts in the coming weeks to promote his workout app, Centr.

The Australian actor began the ambitious endeavor to share health advice with people who want to improve their general fitness and nutrition. Per his social media, Centr “has everything you need for your fitness journey.”

This minimal equipment workout is another small sample of Hemsworth’s ongoing project in the growing fitness space. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth)

[Related: How to Do the Bulgarian Split Squat for Leg Size, Strength, and Mobility]

Hemsworth’s Profile

Hemsworth has an eclectic performance background but is most famous for his role as the shredded Thor in the MCU. Many of his roles feature some necessary physical exertion, so he must keep up his training throughout the calendar year.

After the recent release of Thor: Love and Thunder in July 2022, Hemsworth does not have any other films scheduled for the rest of the year. However, according to IMDB, some of his future projects in 2023 and 2024 will probably keep him in shape.

For example, there’s the high-octane action film Extraction 2 and Furiosa — a prequel in the explosive Mad Max series. Both pending assignments likely mean the active Tinseltown performer won’t lapse in his top-notch fitness soon. 

Featured image: @chrishemsworth on Instagram

The post Check Out Chris Hemsworth’s Minimal Equipment Workout on a Naval Ship appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“Squats don’t hurt your knees; what you are doing hurts your knees.”

Dan John

By the writing of this article, there have been 1,789 homicides in Tijuana this year. That’s exceeded the previous year’s record-high of 1,781, with another three more months remaining in 2018. If you are planning a honeymoon or a quick getaway, perhaps cross Tijuana off your list. Back in 2004, it sounded like a fabulous place to attend an underground MMA event.

“Squats don’t hurt your knees; what you are doing hurts your knees.”

Dan John

By the writing of this article, there have been 1,789 homicides in Tijuana this year. That’s exceeded the previous year’s record-high of 1,781, with another three more months remaining in 2018. If you are planning a honeymoon or a quick getaway, perhaps cross Tijuana off your list. Back in 2004, it sounded like a fabulous place to attend an underground MMA event.

In case you’ve missed ESPN for the last twenty years, MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts. You’re likely more familiar with the dominant brand: the UFC. In the early 2000’s, very few states legalized MMA. Events were confined to Indian casinos, bull rings, and back alleys. It didn’t help that most of the contests were held inside a cage. In 1996, the late Senator John McCain famously called it, “Human Cockfighting.” He later warmed-up to the sport.

I began mixed martial arts shortly after high school in Aliso Viejo, California. The instructor was a former UFC Champion, which meant he was a lethal, badass killer. In my eyes, he was the toughest guy in the world, and I was in his school.

I remember observing my first class to see if I was interested in joining. I watched two guys “spar” with an intensity I’d never seen before. One kid got knocked out, and a different kid dragged him away by the feet. I almost wet myself. What had I gotten myself into?

It wasn’t too late, I hadn’t signed anything, yet. All I needed to do was sneak out, and no one would be the wiser. But, I was sick and tired of getting pushed around. I figured it was a rite-of-passage in school and thought it would end during college. I was wrong. So, I stayed glued to my chair watching the carnage, and after class, and signed up. Since I was too scared to do group classes, I’d do private lessons. I knew I’d get my ass kicked, the last thing I wanted was to have an audience.

The Mentality of Fighting

After getting pummeled once or twice, you get used to it, then you sort of like it. It keeps you humble, exposes flaws in your technique and you feel like you can handle anything. But, it hurts like hell. The punches don’t hurt right away, things just go dim for a millisecond, like a flickering lightbulb.

The pain sets in a few hours later when your face blows up as if you got stung by a thousand wasps. Getting punched or kicked to the torso hurts immediately. It feels like you can’t breathe and your entire body radiates with an indescribable throbbing. Eventually, my coach started making frequent trips to Japan and was less available for instruction, so I was off to look for a new school.

Through my work as a personal Trainer, I met my new coach. He was a good fighter, instructor, and he took a liking to me. He invited me over to his gym to train with his guys, to which I replied, “I only do privates.” I told him why and he laughed it off, but not in the, “you’re a chicken” sort of way, but in the “my guys will take care of you—don’t worry” sort of way.

He rented out space in a racquetball gym called “CardioFit.” It had four or five racquetball courts downstairs and wrestling mats and heavy bags upstairs. The whole gym smelled like sweat and pee. I began doing group classes, built some friendships, and my skills as a fighter continued to improve.

One of the boys, Wesley, really wanted to fight. Like I said earlier, MMA wasn’t technically legal, so if we wanted to compete, we’d have to go to the ends of the Earth, and that meant Mexico. Word got around, and before I knew it, a group of us were ready for Total Combat IV.

The event was held July 24, 2004, at the Baby Rock Night Club in Tijuana, Mexico. The main event was an alleged Neo-Nazi against a guy with Native American blood. I’m not kidding. The former had the “SS” bolts tattooed on his arm, and the latter had “NATIVE” tattooed on his stomach.

I can’t confirm whether the one was an actual Nazi or if the other was a legitimate Apache, but it sold tickets. Another man on the card went on to become a renowned fighter for the UFC. There was also a guy who is currently serving a life sentence for twenty-nine felony counts. And then there’s me.

We parked our car in this tiny parking lot and walked through a large turnstile with the sign “THIS WAY TO MEXICO” or something, above. I wasn’t in Kansas, anymore. I had never been offered gum so many times in my life.

Did my breath smell that bad? One of my Mexican teammates told me to never purchase any because if I did, they’d never leave me alone. I did feel like a jerk for saying “no, gracias” to the kids.

I was amazed at the stuff you could purchase there, although the fun items you could never take back across the border. I don’t mean pinatas and maracas, I’m talking brass knuckles and butterfly knives. If you’re unfamiliar with butterfly knives, they are essentially folding pocket knives, and super illegal. You also run the risk of cutting yourself wide open if you don’t know how to unfold it correctly. I cut myself chopping peppers, I think I’ll pass.

As we walked down Avenida Revolucion, I noticed a few things. First, all the local men hated us. Second, the local women loved us. Third, there were a lot of stray dogs. We passed several bars, each one promising cheaper and cheaper drinks. I think one bar advertised lobsters, which I thought was strange.

We made mental notes as to which ones we’d attend after the fights, assuming we weren’t killed in the nightclub. Finally, we made it to the Baby Rock. Smoke, lasers, and go-go dancers surrounded a ring planted in the center of the building. Not a cage, but a ring. I think the cage was too expensive.

We had a large group, but only a few of us were “cornermen.” That meant we could go backstage, help our guys warm up and be with them at ringside. Coach would provide the bulk of the instructions and I was mostly there for moral support and hold the spit bucket. My mom wanted me to be a doctor, an engineer, or a lawyer. But, here I was, in Mexico, holding a spit bucket for my friend, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone who could be associated with the Cartel.

The fights were a blur. We were backstage most of the time and didn’t get to watch any of them. We’d only see them upon entry and exit. The call goes out, “Wes and Michael—you’re up!” That’s us. We enter the ring to the Steppenwolf song, “Magic Carpet Ride.” Maybe Wes would have picked Pantera, Motley Crue, or NWA.

Still, it was a good song. During the fight, Coach shouted instructions and the drunk crowd called for blood. I felt like I was watching chess. I stood there, in awe of what I was seeing. Looking back, it was mostly unrefined, but at the time, it was incredible. It was all the moves and techniques we learned in training, being employed in an actual fight—and our guy was winning.

Two minutes into the second round, the referee saw that the other guy was not intelligently defending himself, and called an end to the fight. Fight one was over. Fight two: can we get out of Mexico alive? We exited the building with no problems, and it felt like smooth sailing from there. Wrong. Enter: Charles “Mask” Lewis. Mask was the founder of the original apparel line for MMA, Tapout. He and his partners sold shirts, shorts, and stickers outside MMA events from the back of their van.

Today, the WWE holds a 50% stake in the brand. Incredible. Unfortunately, Mask was struck and killed by a drunk driver in 2009. He was posthumously inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, and his name has a permanent place on the UFC Octagon. On the evening of July 24, 2004, he was alive, larger than life, and about to make my life more interesting.

“Stay sharp, I think those guys want to go.” Go didn’t mean “leave,” it meant they wanted to fight, like the Jets and the Sharks, without the tap dancing. And what guys? Why? It’s best not to ask any questions. Not only was I not in medical school, like my mom wanted, but I was also about to get killed in a gang fight.

You may be thinking, “just run away” or “try and talk sense into everyone.” The History books would forever say: “Impromptu gang fight breaks out in Mexico, Amir Mofidi runs away.” Or, “in an attempt at diplomacy, Amir Mofidi stands between the two angry mobs, gets his head smashed with a bottle and spends the remainder of the fight on the ground, bleeding from the skull.”

I can imagine, sitting on a rocking chair, talking to my grandkids, telling them to stand up for themselves, and one of the little smartasses asking, “But, Pop-Pop, didn’t you run like a chicken from a fight in Mexico?” No, thank you.

In America, when the police arrive, things tend to settle down. I think Mexico plays by different rules. When the Federales show up, they shake you down for how much money you have on you, then they still throw you in jail. There’s a joke in the movie Airplane, “have you ever been in a Turkish prison?” I haven’t, but there was a real possibility I’d end up in a Mexican jail. Do you even get a phone call?

A funny thing happens when two groups of men stare each other down in the middle of the street, about to wage war. They either beat the crap out of each other or they become friends. We became friends. I still had no idea what the original beef was, but now I’m embracing total strangers and making amends, everyone taking turns and saying “my bad, bro.”

They insisted that we join them in celebrating our new alliance at the closest bar, over some watered-down alcohol. Now, if you’re street-smart, you’ll smell something suspicious. It’s a trap. It happened to me once outside a Peppino’s in Anaheim, so I was hip to the scam. They lure you in under the premise of friendship, and the next thing you know, you’re surrounded by more of them, with no escape—fish in a barrel.

I whispered to Coach and Mask that this could be a trick, and they nodded in approval. With a movement of the head, I had earned my street-cred, and unofficially became promoted within the group. Instead of following them in like lemmings, we approached cautiously, like ninjas. We walked upstairs to the bar-slash-dancefloor; it was too late to turn back. A last-minute change of heart may spark a fight right then and there.

What was waiting for us at the top of the stairs? A lonely DJ, a couple of locals and a small group of Americans who headed over the border to party. We drank some crappy beer and shared some laughs. Nothing’s funnier than “oh man, we were about to kill each other. Isn’t that hilarious?” I really wanted to go home. Fight two: staying alive in Mexico was complete. That brings us to fight three: will they let me back into America?

Remember, it was 2004, three years removed from 2001. Believe me when I say: I never experienced any bigotry or prejudice following the tragedy of September, 11. But, that doesn’t mean getting back across the border would be a cinch. Airport security is obnoxious, but I don’t feel the same about border security. I wasn’t smuggling anything but a burning desire to get back to our car and kiss the concrete floor. I can’t say the same for everyone else. All it takes, is for one uninspected backpack gets over the border and San Diego goes bye-bye.

“ID please.” Great. This is going to be awkward. I would have killed to have been named Scott Johnson. At least my family didn’t have an affinity for syllables. Otherwise, my name could have read: Amir Mohammadpourkarkaragh. I’d be “randomly checked” for the rest of my life. Did I mention I had a shaved head and a mean-looking goatee?

“What brought you into Mexico?”

“Fighting.” Not a good start. “I mean MMA.”

“What’s MMA?”

“Boxing.”

“Boxing. You a boxer?”

“No, sir.”

“Have anything to drink tonight?”

“Yes, sir, two beers.” Two is usually my upper-limit.

“Any drugs?”

“No, sir.”

“Ok, step aside, we’re going to search you.”

I don’t do drugs, but when you’re about to be searched, you start getting paranoid that you’re actually carrying some. The officer conducting the search nods to the other officer holding my ID that I’m clean, but he won’t give my card back. He looks at the card, back to me, then back down, then reluctantly hands it back. “Go ahead.”

“Thank you, sir. Have a good evening.” I don’t get the “give the police a hard time” mentality. I wanted to go home. I don’t think I ever returned to Tijuana, but I can’t guarantee it’s the last time I did something dangerous.

Defining Safe Versus Unsafe

What was dangerous about that night? Well, a lot. Ironically, MMA was the least dangerous. Compared to boxing, or football, the injury rate per hour of competition is remarkably low. That doesn’t mean invulnerable to injury, but far less than you’d think.

Even in its inchoate days, fighters weren’t encouraged to beat each other to death. Organizations wanted MMA to become sanctioned in states like New York and California. They knew that having a list of dead bodies would derail their cause in an instant.

Therefore, referees weren’t negligent and they frequently stopped fights early, to the dismay of the competitors and the bloodthirsty crowd. Sure, the techniques and strategies were less refined, sometimes thoughtless, but that’s evolved since then. Although the evening was “unsafe,” the Mixed Martial Arts were not.

No two exercises have the stigma of “unsafe” more than squats and deadlifts. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to dispel the myths that squatting or deadlifting is bad for this-or-that. They are not without risk, but they aren’t the perilous time-bombs that people think they are.

MMA isn’t dangerous, the way we went about it that night, was dangerous. The same holds true for most people who squat and deadlift. Truthfully, it’s hard to call what they do “squatting” and “deadlifting.” They look more like seizures with weights. It’s no surprise that knee ligaments tear and discs get blown out. The way many people go about doing them—is dangerous.

Squats and deadlifts are two of the most important and beneficial exercises you can do. For medical reasons, some need to avoid them, but that’s a minority of people. I’m still young, but there are a lot of miles on my body. I can’t exercise with the same intensity and volume I could when I was younger, nor do I want to.

The same goes for MMA. I don’t want to get punched in the face, anymore. But, I still grapple often and go against stronger, younger, and faster guys. In the end, it’s the technique that either saves my butt or kicks theirs. Squatting and deadlifting properly requires technique and finesse. Leave the extreme one-rep-maxes to the young and the competitive powerlifters. Don’t get me wrong, you can go heavy—heavier than you think—but stay technical.

It’s the technique that will save your back, your knees, and make you love those exercises as much as I do. Now, go do a proper set of squats before they get banned for being “unsafe,” and we have to go to Tijuana to do them.

The post Once Upon a Time in Mexico appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I have a sordid history with squatting. It’s been a classic love-hate relationship, mixed with heartbreak, disappointment, and pain (dramatic, I know). When I was coming up as an athlete, like most guys, I was obsessed with the bench press. Unfortunately for me, I was really good at benching, which meant that’s all I wanted to do.

I came up as an athlete in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. Strength training as we know it today didn’t really exist. There were pockets of people doing great stuff, but most of us were getting our lifting routines from the muscle mags at the grocery store, and unless you want only the aesthetics piece, those routines are not for athletes. What made matters worse were all the benching and arm articles that monopolized the pages of those magazines. Rarely would you see much on squatting, and if you did, it was normally buried among leg routines that focused on the leg press. Squats were an afterthought.

By the time I was a sophomore in college, I was able to bench around 500lb, all natural. The problem was, I couldn’t squat 500lb to save my life. It wasn’t until the offseason before my senior year that I decided (belatedly) to train with the best squatter on my team. My squat became respectable and passed my bench, but not by much. And to say that I hated every second of it was an understatement.

Then something strange happened. I graduated college, started coaching, and decided that I would become obsessed with squatting. For about four years, I went on a squatting odyssey. Bending my knees became a daily priority. I remember training myself to love it thusly: Every time I would address the bar, I would say to myself, “I fucking love this shit.” Over time, it became the truth.

A few years into my obsession, I suffered a string of back injuries that put me into early retirement. I might have loved squatting, but since I never received any real coaching on it as an athlete, I didn’t realize that I was doing some sketchy things. These flaws led to some of the most debilitating times of my training life. It was a breakup with an exercise that I can say with the utmost sincerity I am not over, even to this day.

If You Can Sit, You Can Squat

It makes sense, at least in theory. We sit all the time, so something as organic and natural as the squatting motion should be nearly seamless. Well friends, it isn’t. Let’s do some soul searching, together.

Think of the last 650 times you sat down in a chair. Go ahead, I’ll wait. It’s a squat, in most cases. Now think of how you get into your car. If you’re like 99% of the population, you plop down into your chair. There’s no real “control” of the descent. Same with our cars. I’m guilty of this more than anyone. I sort of dive into my seat, rather than strategically lower myself. I can’t count how many times my wife has given me dirty looks because some of that crash has me spilling over into her space, and I thump her with an elbow or shoulder as I’m crash landing into the driver’s seat.

We tend to be a bit more careful when we make our daily stop to the toilet. But I would also venture that your “technique” to getting to the seat is more of a good morning with a “whatever knee bend” to get your ass to the chair. Sound about right?

Don’t Crash or Crumble; Pull Into the Hole

My favorite cue for all of my athletes is to puuuuull themselves into the hole. For reasons I have tried to establish above, we might be able to arrive in a squatting position that may or may not be acceptable, but nearly every athlete I encounter has no practice on how to get there effectively. The chair-flops, driver’s-seat-dives, and toilet-good-mornings don’t count as good reps. In fact, on some low level, they influence your squat reps more than you know.

I can look you in the eye and say with complete confidence that 0% of my athletes have any idea of what I’m talking about when I deliver this cue to them for the first time. The notion of how they are getting down has never occurred to them, nor evidently the coaches who taught them prior to me. Most of them awkwardly “drop it like it’s hot,” or go down a bit slower, but for slow’s sake. Gravity, the bar, and the load are all in charge of crumbling them toward their understanding of the bottom, then they attempt to organize some semblance of tension for the big push to get up. It’s a hot mess.

What we teach is a controlled descent that is less of an eccentric contraction as the muscles lengthen, and more of a concentric contraction of the hip flexors, hamstrings and ankle dorsiflexors. It is an orchestra of active muscles contracting (shortening) and creating the pull, to take the athlete to their desired depth.

The Hip Flexors

The pull begins with the lifter engaging the hip flexors. There are around 10 muscles in the hips that are either directly or indirectly responsible for flexing the hip. Engage all of them. Muscles like the rectus femoris and the psoas contract hard to draw the knees up and move the lifter down. Activating this entire complex also creates space between the femoral head and the pelvis itself. This allows the lifter to comfortably sit lower and not feel jammed in the hip. I have had several athletes with hip labrum tears who were able to move pain-free and continue squatting because they are using this lone cue.

The Hamstrings

For the longest time, the hamstrings were an afterthought when it came to squatting. Not anymore. Engaging the hamstring the descending portion of the squat further adds control and stability to the system as the lifter sits into their groove. The hamstring is a knee flexor and hip extensor (by job title), and in this case, we want the knee flexor role to come into play. For squatting (and pistols especially), the hamstrings help steer the legs, keeping some of the goofy stuff that tends to manifest to a minimum.

The Ankle Dorsiflexors

Yes, even the shins become a player in the lowering of the athlete. Think of pulling the tops of the feet up towards the knees, without the toes leaving the ground. This one very subtle idea can make profound differences in the range of motion for a lifter, and continue to give the athlete a sense of control throughout the movement. Many coaches try and coach a vertical shin at all costs. This, for most people, is not a practical goal. Whether you like it or not, the ankle must move during a squat. No, we don’t want the knees tracking way beyond the toes, but there will be some drift forward as the dorsiflexors contribute their role in pulling.

The Orchestra

Once you own the feeling of each of these three major sections actively pulling the body down you’re your bottom position, it’s time to coordinate how it’s done. If you look at my article Get The Rhythm In Your Bones For Safer Squats, the hips, knees, and ankles move in concert. The movement does not begin here and then finish there. As the descent begins, all three joints need to be in motion. At no time will one joint (take hips for example) lead the movement. It’s a coordinated, three-joint, fluid movement.

Take Charge of Your Squat

I tell my athletes that they are in charge of, and responsible for, every second the bar or bell is in motion. We never let gravity or the load take charge. I am in charge, at all times. When the lifter knows that they must control things and pull themselves into the bottom position, there’s a sense of ownership to the entire motion.

The active descent also opens the doors to new levels of strength in the muscles involved. Instead of the muscles of the hips and legs going along for the ride on the way down, we create opportunities to get stronger. Many of the muscles of the legs responsible for the eccentric movement get their fair share of work, but you are now sneaking in opportunities for the others, who would normally be somewhat dormant, to come to the party and get work. Win, win.

Pulling into the hole also washes away some of the inherent fear that comes with many of the big movements like squatting. There’s a real threat to the lifter that the nervous system picks up on when they either have poor coaching, or carelessly drop into bottom position. If you imagine going for a max attempt, fear can be a deciding factor for the success of that attempt. If the athlete is careless during this stage of their attempt, it’s a great way to get hurt.

Even old guys like me, who were forced into a premature squatting retirement, find new life as we begin to implement these rules. I went into a lifting depression when I was having my back issues. My attitude was, “well, if I can’t squat, why lift?” It was a sad, dark place. But in the past year I have returned to squatting, although with different goals in mind. I am very careful every session, but I’ve had a year of training that has been injury-free. My back feels good, my strength is coming along, and my love for squatting has never been this strong.

Regardless of how you like to squat—the Kelly Starrett knees-out version, high bar Olympic, low bar powerlifter, narrow-stance bodybuilder—this is a cue that will immediately change how you move. Safer. Stronger. Pull yourself into the hole.

The post My Most Effective Squat Cue appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The adductors are one of the most misunderstood and inappropriately trained muscle groups. While they do bring the thighs together, they are mostly used in flexion and extension of the hips in everyday movement. How many muscle groups can you name that both flex and extend a joint?

This makes it all the more important to strengthen the adductors to perform stronger, faster hip flexion and extension. Running, jumping, agility, squatting, and lunging all improve when the adductors are better at flexing and extending the hips.

A Misplaced Emphasis

The fact is, we rarely if ever squeeze our legs together against resistance in life. Perhaps riding bareback on a horse or in jiu-jitsu class you’d want to squeeze your legs together against resistance. But there’s not a lot of other application to squeezing the legs together.

Adductors contribute to flexing the hips in the open chain phase of movement, when the foot is moving up off the ground. They are also key to squatting, where they help pull the body down into a better position, versus passively descending into a squat. They also help extend the hips coming up from a squat, and help drive the legs down and back when sprinting. While they aren’t the big prime movers everyone thinks of for these movements, you’re stronger and faster when your adductors are in the game instead of just along for the ride.

Despite their predominant role as flexors and extensors, the way most people target them is by squeezing the thighs together against resistance. The problem here is that when the resistance is positioned against the inside of the thighs, shins, or feet, this oblique force does not travel up though the body and skeleton (up the kinetic chain), the way forces do when directed through the bottoms of the feet. It’s akin to performing only chest flies to get better at bench pressing. And if you do too much adductor squeezing from the side, you’ll actually increase the likelihood of groin pulls, while not gaining transferrable strength or power.

If There Are No Trees to Climb

The key to getting the most from your adductors is engaging them with the force driving through the bottoms of your feet. For this, you need something other than a 2D ground environment. The only way to specifically target the adductors is to have something between your feet that enables you to drive the soles of your feet toward the center line beneath you.

Long ago, our distant ancestors used to shimmy up trees. There are still remote pockets of primitive cultures that do this regularly today. For those of us living in the concrete jungle, we need a better solution for developing the functional role of the adductors. It’s called Compression Strength Training using the BOSU Elite.

Before I continue, please note the intention of this article is not a sales pitch for BOSU balls; it’s to inform you of the best way to train and get the most out of your adductors. The BOSU’s dome shape and elastic quality is perfectly suited for training the adductors (along with the glutes, pecs, and lats). The shape enables you to drive your feet together toward the midline, with all of the force reactively transmitting up the kinetic chain through the soles of your feet.

You do this to your limit, until you can’t compress it in any further. This is where the magic happens. Elastic resistance has an acceleration factor that is much faster than gravity. The harder you compress the dome, the higher the resistance gets, and the speed of the resistance stimulates the nervous system to recruit the largest motor units and maximum amount of fast twitch muscle fibers.

When you set up the correct foot position (see the video below), squeeze with the correct parts of your feet, match your spine and shin angles throughout the exercise, and compress into the dome as hard as you possibly can, you experience an immediate carryover effect in your adductors: moving and squatting better on the ground.

The Competitive Edge

In athletics, new advantages eventually become necessities. Because it is now possible to tap into the adductors in such a way so as to immediately enhance both strength and speed, the list of institutions and trainers using this new method of training is growing every day.

Cal Poly, under the leadership of Coach Chris Holder, was the first college institution to use Compression Strength Training to train every athlete in every sport. One of the first things Coach Chris White did when he arrived at LSU this year was to incorporate the same system.

My advice to everyone in the fitness and sports training industry is stop squeezing the life out of your adductors with oblique force from the side on that gynecological machine in the gym. It’s doing little or nothing to enhance your function, and likely increases the odds of injury. Instead, try your damnedest to pop the BOSU Elite between the soles of your feet, exactly as shown in the video, and enjoy the benefits to all of your power and athletic movements.

The post The Magical Power Between Your Legs appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Giulio Palau

Firstly, it’s important to note that any well rounded strength and conditioning program should include both unilateral and bilateral movements. Anyone who claims that unilateral movements make you weak, or that bilateral movements are unnecessary, is missing the point. Both bilateral and unilateral exercises are associated with different applications and training adaptations, so don’t neglect one for the other. That being said, let’s talk about how and when to implement each of these variations.

For the sake of argument, we’ll compare the single squat to the back squat. If you’ve ever performed these exercises, there are a few obvious differences that immediately come to mind. The single leg squat is much more challenging in terms of dynamic stabilization. This has the consequence of drastically limiting the amount of weight you can lift compared with the back squat, due to the structural advantage you have during the bilateral squat. The added demands of the single leg variation will challenge your ability to stabilize dynamically and control your movements through space.

Bilateral exercises like the back squat are associated with more overall strength and power development. There has been some evidence to suggest that the back squat is more effective for building linear velocity, while unilateral leg exercises are effective in developing lateral change of direction, perhaps because they challenge us to stabilize in the frontal and transverse planes, even during movements that are usually considered to take place in the sagittal plane. Unilateral exercises can be effective during a strength-stabilization phase of your periodization to address any asymmetrical strength deficits and strengthen the smaller stabilizer muscles at a particular joint.

Both of these adaptations are critical in maintaining healthy joints and decreasing the likelihood of injury. You can also use a unilateral exercise like the single leg deadlift before a bilateral deadlift to increase activation and proprioception. Single leg exercises have a way of making any imbalances from side to side very obvious. These are the kinds of observations that if addressed now, could prevent an injury down the line.

Odds are that whether you tend to favor bilateral or unilateral exercises, you need to be doing more of what you’re neglecting.

Unilateral exercises are indispensable for preventing injury and correcting asymmetrical strength deficits, while bilateral movements are superior in developing maximal strength and power.

Ted Sloan

Both unilateral and bilateral training help athletes perform better for their individual reasons. It is important to train both, especially because bilateral strength doesn’t transfer very efficiently to unilateral and visa versa; a 150 pound person may be able to squat 300 pounds, but not be able to perform a single leg squat on one or both limbs to parallel.

Most sport takes place on one leg at a time; this includes running, certain jumping movements and lateral movements. When training unilaterally, many stabilizers are activated to a greater extent, which can help to develop knee stability and reduce the likelihood of non-contact injuries occurring. Further, we tend to develop imbalances between limbs at a very young age, in fact it has been shown that even babies favor one limb more often than another.

Training unilaterally can significantly close that gap, although many of us will never accomplish true symmetry. An imbalance such as this can increase the likelihood of injury, due to the fact that one limb may not be able to tolerate the levels of power output that the other can produce.

Bilateral movements can help to establish a base of strength that can translate into bilateral movements, as well as to help develop the core musculature; these include pushing, pulling, certain jumping movements, and anything that requires a combination of these movements, such as a lineman in American Football, trying to hold an opponent.

Many coaches preach that some of the bilateral lifts, such as squats and deadlifts, can train the core musculature well enough that any extra core training becomes unnecessary. In my opinion, these lifts help significantly with core development, however, I also believe that it is important to perform other movements to fully develop the core properly.

Each form of training has their merits, thus, it is important not to neglect one for the other in order to create carry over to the field of play.

Antonio Squillante

Symmetry, dominance, and laterality are fundamental concepts that need to be well understood in order to prevent and, if necessary, to correct motor patterns that can expose an athlete to a higher risk of injury. Nevertheless, performance itself can be significantly affected if a higher degree of asymmetry is present between the lower and/or upper extremities.

The rational implementation of unilateral and bilateral exercises are by far the most efficient way to reinforce and/or correct erroneous motor behaviors. It is mandatory, however, to understand when to apply them and, most importantly, why.

Asymmetry is the inevitable consequence of laterality, the development of preferential motor patterns based on the use of the left and/or right lower and/or upper extremity. Laterality emerges from dominance, the process of establishing left versus right handedness/footedness naturally occurring during the first decade of life. Laterality and dominance, therefore, are words that should not have a negative connotation. However, excessive asymmetry – the result of years of sport-specific practice and competition – can lead to structural and functional imbalances.

Evidence has shown that more than 15% of asymmetry between left and right leg can significantly increase the risk of injury and negatively affect performance.

There are no data available for the upper extremities, although postural imbalances will result from excessive asymmetry between right and left arm. In my opinion, symmetry between dominant and non-dominant, upper and lower extremities should be measured in order to assess a potential source of imbalances: if the discrepancy goes above what appears to be a tolerable deficit (10-15% as an average) unilateral strength training should be implemented to counterbalance the effect of years of preferential use of the dominant limb.

Sport-specific adaptation will tend toward a certain degree of asymmetry, also know as sport-specific kinetic adaptation: unilateral strength training does, therefore, represent the most effective strategy to increase symmetry between dominant and nondominant limb.

Training the upper and/or lower extremities independently from each other allows to systematically overload the weaker arm/leg improving strength and coordination while progressively decrease the functional deficit between left and right limb.

The post The Effective Applications for Unilateral vs Bilateral Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Giulio Palau – The Stable Barbell

What are the important differences in exercise selection between the front and back barbell squats, and when might one be more appropriate than the other?

There are a few important considerations when selecting front versus back squat lifts for a client. Although most people consider the front squat the more challenging of the two in terms of shoulder mobility, and it is, the importance of the stability of the shoulder complex in the back squat should not be overlooked.

That being said, if you have the prerequisites to perform both exercises properly you should reap the benefits of both by training both. Now, let’s get into the details. Studies have shown similar muscle activation during both back and front squats. However, the center of mass of the bar in relation to your center of gravity is what changes the emphasis of the lift.

The back squat is a much more stable lift due to the mechanical advantage of loading the bar axially (closer to your center of gravity). The trade-off is that this results in more compression forces in the knee, due to the longer distance between the bar and the fulcrum at that joint.

The front squat may be more effective in avoiding some of the stress placed on the knees, which can be an important consideration in programming for someone with a ligament tear or chronic injury. The front squat has also been shown to increase the activation of knee extensor muscles (quads), specifically the vastus medialis, which is commonly regarded as an important stabilizer of the patella. Another advantage of training the front squat is the carryover of the shoulder stability for power cleans, an indispensable exercise for developing athletic power.
However, The advantage of a more stable bar is the ability to lift more weight, resulting in more overall strength and power development. In addition, the back squat has the potential to cause more posterior chain activation as the hips tend to shift back slightly during the descent.
All things considered, the front squat may be more beneficial for athletic development because of the carryover to power cleans and because it challenges the core to stabilize more dynamically. However, the back squat seems to be more effective in developing raw power, due to the ability to lift more weight.

Whichever you perform, take the time to learn the movements properly. Remember that function follows form.

Theodore Sloan – Well Rounded Athletes

There are many pros and cons between these two methods of squatting, especially when comparing athletes from different sports. Both forms of squats are great and should be used interchangeably, depending on the athlete.

Front squats tend to be a more quadriceps dominant variation, which can promote strength and growth development of the VMO (vastus medialis oblique) quadriceps muscle that contributes to knee stability.

On the other hand, back squats are still a quadriceps dominant exercise, however, they can target hamstrings and gluteal musculature to a greater extent, which can help balance the strength ratio between hamstrings and quadriceps; usually an issue in sports such as hockey and skiing. The extra gluteal activation in the back squat can further contribute to knee stability.

Back squats require a greater range of motion through the shoulder joint and can consequently place unwanted stress on overhead sport athletes such as baseball, volleyball and basketball players; consequently, front squats are often the better option for this population. The back squat requires greater range of motion in the hips and ankles in order to perform the exercise to a proper depth. Due to the position of the bar in the front squat, the exercise can more easily be performed in an upright posture and requires greater balance in order to complete; as a result, the front squat can be the better exercise to introduce to a new young athlete since it forces them to perform the exercise properly and has fewer limitations.

Just as with any exercise though, it is important to mix up the exercises performed, if only by manipulating a specific exercise, such as changing tempos, depth of movement, stance width and so on.

Alternating between the two squat variations for athletes without limitations can help to create a better, more well rounded athlete, which can increase stability, strength and longevity.

Antonio Squillante – In Medio Stat Virtus

Back squat and front squat are both excellent exercises to develop lower body strength and power. Too often they have been considered as general and sport specific exercises, respectively, whereas they both display similar biomechanical features. I believe the question of “which one is more beneficial and when” pertains to the individual situation.

A weightlifter, for instance, might find it beneficial, more often in the off season, let’s say a 3:2 ratio on a weekly basis between the back and front squat while inverting this proportion as a competitions approach.

A powerlifter, on the other hand, would front squat very rarely and more likely than not during the off season. For an athlete – let’s say, a soccer player, a football player, or a track and field athlete – I would recommend back squatting at least twice a week: back squatting involves more muscles than front squatting, promoting a better balance between anterior and posterior muscle chain.

High-bar, half squats, in particular, allow for greater power output and they display a better transfer in sports requiring linear and change of direction speed. Any other athlete should instead alternate back and front squat within the same week. I would say, in this circumstance, a hybrid approach to strength training, powerlifting/weightlifting oriented – common among collegiate athletes – in order to promote balance between agonist and antagonist muscles in the lower extremity.

Ideally, back squat and front squat should be alternated on a weekly basis in a 1:1 ratio: however, short mesecycle (4 to 6 weeks) of back squat and/or front squat only can sometimes be recommended to focus on specific weaknesses.

In order to create proper balance between quads, glutes and hamstrings it would be ideal to test both back and front squat on a regular basis to assess proper development of the lower body musculature as a whole.

A ratio of 1:0.7 between back squat and front squat – with the back squat 1RM being 1.5 to 2 times an athlete’s bodyweight for female and male athletes age 19 or older, respectively, and the front squat 1RM being 70% of BS 1RM – has been suggested to provide the optimal H:Q ratio (hamstrings to quadriceps ratio), a main indicator of proper muscular development of the lower extremity.

The post The Squat Conundrum: Front to Back appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

If you own a car, you know that to get the most out of it, you need to fill it up with quality fuel, be careful not to abuse it, and keep it looking good. You also know that you have to keep up on the maintenance. Not just routine stuff, but also a full tune-up every now and again, where you replace hoses, flush fluids, and adjust brakes and suspension for improved performance.

Why wouldn’t you do the same regarding your training?

Eat right? Check. Train consistently? Check. Get proper rest and recovery? Check and check. But what about dissecting your training making sure everything is working as it should? Just like your vehicle, your body may not be taking full advantage of what you are trying to accomplish each day. You go to the gym and train like a beast, but what if you could do better? Optimization is the key, here. Practice doesn’t make perfect—perfect practice does. 

Below are a few fixes for your training you may have overlooked. Chances are, you’ll find a few on here you’re guilty of. The fixes I provide aren’t miracles, but they will help you optimize your training to be more effective in the long run. All that is required of you is to be honest with yourself, swallow a little pride, and tune up that engine the right way.

Rebuild Your Bench Press

The biggest ego lift of all time is also one of the most abused. Bent and bowed backs, butts in the air, and ugly reps dominate the gym floor on any given Monday. Yet results seem to be few and far between. If strength and size are the goals, then learn to set your ego aside and do it right.

The Fix: Lie on the bench in a five-point contact posture: your head, upper back, and butt on the bench, and both of your feet firmly flat on the floor. Without lifting your butt up, arch your lower back slightly and drive your shoulders down to the floor and toward your waist. Keep your chest high at all times and drive your feet into the ground for stability while you try to break the bar during the lift.

Find the Bottom Half of Your Squat

You’ve seen it, you scoff at it, but let’s be honest, you’ve probably practiced it too. Half-squats are as common in any gym as sweaty towels. Is it fear? Is it ego? Maybe it’s a little of both. Virtually anyone can perform a full range squat with their bodyweight but, for some reason, once you put weight on the bar, they wade in the shallow end. This isn’t doing you any good.

The Fix: I can talk about the mechanics of the squat all day, but the real culprits are mobility and ego. First, ditch your ego and start squatting with just the bar until you can do it right. Next, increase hip, hamstring, and calf mobility by stretching. Get comfortable in the bottom position of the squat and don’t add a single pound to the bar until you have perfected a full range of motion.

Bend All the Way Over

The bent-over row is a very technical move for developing back strength, size and thickness, but so many people screw it up and perform it like an upright row. Their upper bodies are well beyond 45 degrees, and they “bump” the weight up in small, quick jerks.

The Fix: Treat the barbell bent-over row as the name implies. First of all, lighten the load on the bar. Next, step up on a riser or a weight plate or two for a better range of motion. Bend over only at the hips with a straight back until your torso is completely parallel with the floor. Tighten your core and lift the bar to your lower abdominal area while maintaining that parallel position.

Blast Your Tiny Calves

Calves. Either you have them or you don’t, right? Many gym-goers just chalk it up to genetics and don’t even bother with another calf raise in their lives. Yes, genetics does play a role in overall muscular development, but why surrender that easily? Why not work with what you have and get just a little better each day?

The Fix: First, perform any straight-leg calf exercise with locked knees. This will ensure you’re targeting the calves without involving your quads. Next, train your calves with 4-8 quality sets, every other day. Do this for a solid three months, and you’ll be surprised at what you can do with bad genetics.

Raise Your Plates

The dumbbell side lateral raise is one of the most abused exercises known to man. People look like dying moths, as they throw the weight up and out haphazardly without any rhyme or reason. The side lateral raise targets a rather vulnerable joint, so it would behoove you to do it right to avoid injury.

The Fix: Ditch the dumbbells and grab a pair of weight plates—start with the ten-pound variety if you have to. The plate will introduce a stability challenge that will make your deltoids work harder, and will also challenge your grip. With the slightest bend in your elbow, raise the plates from your sides straight up to shoulder level where the plate is parallel with the floor. Slowly and under control, lower the plates back down to your sides.

Your Legs Deserve Better

The leg press is another horribly abused machine. Yes, most squat variations are superior in overall muscular development, stability, and functionality, but if you find you are one who needs the leg press as an alternative, then let’s take a look at a few things. There are two camps of transgressors on the leg press: Those that use a too shallow range of motion, and those who lower the sled too far down and round their backs. There is a simple remedy for both groups, but it may take an observer to help out.

The Fix: As you lower the weight, have your observer keep an eye on your pelvis. Once your butt starts to rise off of the pad, stop the descent and press the weight back up. Avoid any pelvic tilt as you lower the sled. This puts tremendous strain on the lower back, as it has to straighten out under all that weight. Believe it or not, there is such thing as too much range of motion on the leg press.

Ditch the Box for RDLs

The Romanian deadlift is an effective posterior chain builder. It works almost every muscle in the body directly or indirectly. It’s common to see someone stand on a box or riser as they perform these with rounded backs and locked legs. This is not only ineffective, but also dangerous.

The Fix: Ditch the box. Once you perform RDLs correctly, you will find your range of motion will be considerably shortened. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes pointed straight ahead, and an overhand grip on the bar. Bend your knees slightly and lock them into that position. Next, hinge at your hips only, not your lower back. You should feel a stretch in your glutes and hamstrings. The bar should reach around your mid-shin level—any lower, and you are almost certainly rounding your back.

Stop Overtraining Biceps

The principle of specificity states that you should train specifically for what you are trying to accomplish. So, if you want bigger biceps, train the crap out of them, right? Well, if that were true everyone would be walking around with mountain peaks for upper arms. But why isn’t this true? One word: overtraining. Too many sets, and too much weight.

The Fix: To get bigger arms, think bigger. Focus on more rows and pull ups in your program, and look to perform biceps work only as finishers. If you put more emphasis on increasing strength on bent-over barbell rows, T-bar rows, and all types of pull ups, your biceps will have no choice but to grow. When training biceps specifically, keep it simple. Go with barbell curls or dumbbell curls for just a handful of sets, and increase strength there as well.

Press All the Way

Gym-bro shoulder presses are a lot like their squats. They lower the weight just a few inches, and arch their backs, turning it into an incline bench press. Two things wrong with that. One, the shoulders have a massive amount of range, and you should be training all of it. Second, leaning back on a standing shoulder press is a great way to destroy your lower back. You need to handle the appropriate amount of weight with control.

The Fix: The no-brainer solution is to lighten your load and use a full range of motion. This includes (for seated dumbbell press) being in an upright position, lowering the weight until the bells touch your shoulders, and then pressing back up to just short of lockout. Another quick trick is to pre-exhaust your deltoids by performing all sets for your medial and posterior heads before finishing with presses.

Do a Real Pull Up

A properly executed pull up is a beautiful thing, but few actually practice them correctly. In fact, very few are ever performed in the average commercial gym. Pull-down machines, counterbalance-assisted pull up machines, and other apparatuses have become preferred alternatives.

The Fix: The easiest way to welcome more pull ups in your life is to take a two-pronged approach. First, perform them every day. One set done any time of day will be sufficient, in addition to your normal training schedule. Second, choose a number (start with a low number if you can only manage a few reps). Let’s say you start with 10. Perform as many sets as it takes to get to that total. If it takes 10 sets of one, then so be it.

Tune Up to Get More From Your Training

Like a fine-tuned engine, you can make tweaks and adjustments to any exercise to get the most out of it. The key is to take a good, honest look at what you are currently doing and make real, ego-swallowing changes, so you can get more out of every exercise and workout. Take care of your machine and it will take care of you.

Think you need a complicated program to get a good workout? Think again:

The One-Session, One-Exercise, One-Set Strength Plan

The post Time for a Training Tune-Up appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Many studies point to age thirty as when the average person reaches their peak bone density and muscle mass. For those who remain inactive or engage in only normal everyday activities, it all goes downhill from there.

I don’t train to just “get fit.” I want to get strong, tough, and thicken-up my body. We are all in an ongoing to fight to get strong and stay that way for as long as we can.

Many studies point to age thirty as when the average person reaches their peak bone density and muscle mass. For those who remain inactive or engage in only normal everyday activities, it all goes downhill from there.

If you aren’t working to get stronger, everything about you is getting weaker. Even your bones.

I’ve trained plenty of endurance guys who didn’t fare too well as they aged. Many men in their fifties and sixties who were surprisingly frail and weak when I taught them how to use kettlebells.

Something many fail to realize is that osteoporosis, or loss of bone mass and density, is often precipitated or at least exacerbated by sarcopenia, which is a weakening and loss of lean muscle tissue.

Part of this occurs because of a failure to apply Wolff’s Law, the theory that mechanical usage stresses bone and cause an adaptive response or remodeling of the bone to become thicker and stronger.

So, how do you elicit a response in bone remodeling? You have to train hard. Hypervigorous mechanical usage (HvMU) means that you have to stress your bone structure more vigorously than the normal to build and toughen bone mass.

As a bonus, strengthening your body with HvMU also affects the same remodeling response in you muscle tissue. You’ve got to love two-for-one deals!

To get thicker, stronger, and tougher, you have to put in some good old-fashioned work.

Inspiration From the Legends of Strength

Some of my idols are the old-time strong men like Eugen Sandow, Arthur Saxon, and George Jowett. These guys were not only looked strong; they were strong.

The same goes for men in the golden age of body-building: John Grimek, Reg Park, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dave Draper, Serge Nubret, and Franco Columbu. And don’t forget men training in Olympic Weightlifting like Serge Reding, Pyrros Dimas, David Rigert, Bill March, and Tommy Kono.

Of course we can’t forget the women. Lidia Valentin of Spain is an Olympic weightlifter in the 75kg class and has clean and jerked 147kg. She’s also squatted 385lb for a double. Marte Elverum is a female powerlifting champion from Norway and Lauren Fisher is a CrossFit Games phenomenon; both are strong and conditioned women.

Training to get strong and thicken up your body isn’t just for show. It can combat the effects of aging, like decreased bone density.

Now is the time to take inspiration from these athletes to pack some meat on your bones and strengthen your entire body with HvMU.

Hypervigorous training doesn’t mean you have to kill yourself, but it does mean you have to push yourself enough to create an adaptive response in the muscle, bones, and other tissues.

Unfortunately, this becomes harder as you get older because the body recovers more slowly from injuries as you age.

That being the case, it makes sense to train in shorter, more intense bouts to allow for more recovery time.

The Muscles and Might Lead-In Program

In my next article, I will lay out a strength and conditioning program based around the movements I have shown you in the past few weeks.

But you will need to prepare your body for what you’re about to undertake, as well as know the movements and build or acquire the implements.

The example programs below will get your body ready by helping you build some great strength and muscle mass. Feel free to modify my example plans, or create your own.

Choose three major compound movements to build strength and couple them with two to three assistance exercises designed for hypertrophy.

Be sure to warm up before training. I like to use the major lift for the day as my warm up by incorporating several sets at lighter weights for 5-10 reps.

Others may like a bit more in their warm-up routine, but don’t let the warm up tire you out. Five or ten minutes should be plenty of time unless you crawled out of a meat-locker.

Follow your lead-in program for two weeks before jumping into the conditioning routine that will be in my next article. 

Example Program 1

Day One (Monday):

1. Deadlift: 7 x 2. Work up in weight each set.
2. Hypertrophy work:

• Yates rows: 4 x 8-10 reps
• One-arm rows: 3 x 8 reps
• (Optional) Standing barbell curl: 3 x 8 (heavy). Stay tight and move that weight!

Day Two (Wednesday):

1. Bench press: 7 x 2-3. Work up in weight each set.
2. Hypertrophy work:

• See-saw press: 4 x 8-10
• Dips: 3 x 8
• (Optional) Diamond push ups: 3 x 8

Day Three (Friday):

1. Squats: 7 x 2. Work up in weight each set.
2. Hypertrophy:

• Bulgarian split squats (aka: rear foot elevated split squats): 4 x 10
• Tactical lunge (reverse lunge): 3 x 8

Low reps on the deadlifts and squats help you maintain good form, since the back does not get as fatigued as it would with higher-rep sets.

If you have any energy left at the end the day, knock out a bit of ab work. However, you should feel your entire torso working if you are training the main lifts hard with enough weight and proper body tension.

Example Program 2

Day One (Monday):

1. Power cleans: 7 x 3
2. Hypertrophy:

• Pendlay rows: 4 x 8-10
• Power shrugs: 3 x 8
• Face-pulls: 3 x 10-15 reps

Day Two (Wednesday):

1. Push-press: 7 x 2-3
2. Hypertrophy:

• Pull ups 4 x 10
• One arm press: 3 x 8

This will be enough volume for most people, but if you want to do more, add 3 circuits of 8 reps each of front, lateral, and rear lateral dumbbell or plate raises. Or sub in something else you would like to work on, but don’t use this time as an excuse to do a ton of other things.

Day Three (Friday):

1. Front squats: 7 x 2-3
2. Hypertrophy:

• Tactical lunge (reverse lunge): 4 x 10
• Overhead squat: 3 x 8

Program Tips and Strategy

In the beginning, you may find that you can only handle 4 or 5 of the 7 prescribed sets. That’s okay. Take your time and gradually work up to the 7 sets. Your aim is to add weight to each set, not to do all 7 with the same weight.

Take 2-3 minutes’ rest between these main work sets. For the main lifts each day, focus on building strength using rock-solid form and technique. 

For the hypertrophy work, the weights will be lighter than your main lifts. Add weight when you can, but realize that going heavy is not the focus.

The rep schemes of these movements are designed to create muscular growth; therefore, take only enough rest to be able to jump into and complete the next set.

For most people, performing the first two hypertrophy exercises after the main lift will be plenty. But if you feel you want to do the third hypertrophy movement, be my guest.

If the sets and reps of the bodyweight movements are too hard, sub in something that is easier for you to complete with good form. If the bodyweight prescription isn’t challenging enough, add weight with some sort of harness.

Recover and Get Ready for the Next Phase

These routines might leave you feeling quite sore. To reduce soreness, incorporate a few sets of bodyweight squats and light goblet squats each day to keep your legs and hips feeling fresh.

Walking, cycling, or swimming for 30-60 minutes each day will also help with recovery, but don’t use this as an excuse to pump up your heart rate. This is a good time to play in the pool with your family or take your dog for a walk.

Stay with this program for at least two weeks before launching into the next phase I’ll show you. Laying this foundation will add some meat to your bones, and allow you to take on my conditioning program with gusto.

More Ways to Add Meat to Your Bones:

• Size, Strength, or Power? A Training Method Primer
• The 4 Phases of a Solid Strength Program
• It’s Not the Years, It’s the Miles: Training After 50
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photo 1 courtesy of The Training Hall by Odd E Haugen.

Photo 2 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The post Of Muscles and Might: The Lead-In Program appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Young, Dumb, and Injured

I thought I was bulletproof for most of my lifting career. I was the guy who would walk in, hit ten kettlebell swings, and then start loading the bar. My first big accident was underneath 465lb. On my fourth rep, I felt a pop. I spent the next two weeks in pain. The next time was a measly 185lb. On the very first rep, that pop was more like a bomb going off. Another two weeks laid up.

Because of how the spine is loaded in a back squat, when something goes wrong, it’s often catastrophic. For me, a tight psoas led to my demise. I was afraid of further injury, so I went on early retirement from squatting and took several years off. I was heartbroken.

And then I found Dr. Eric Cobb and Z-Health Performance Solutions. Z-Health is a remarkable system that puts the nervous system in the spotlight. I decided to study with Eric in 2007 and completed my training in 2009. Among the hundreds of gems that I learned while studying, bone rhythm was one of the most impactful and immediate fixes for my squatting woes.

The Guard on Duty

Before we can dive into bone rhythm, we need to understand how the brain operates when it comes to performance. The brain and nerves combine to form the Central Nervous System, or CNS. The CNS is responsible for managing, operating, and controlling every system in the body. From breathing, to our sensation of pain, to hitting a PR in a barbell snatch, the CNS is the master controller.

The brain’s number one duty is to keep us alive. If the body is telling the brain that there is a problem – from a jammed joint, nervousness or fear, or even a poor eye position – the brain will begin to pull the plug on our ability to fully produce muscular force so that we don’t hurt ourselves.

If you have trouble getting this deep, the problem may be between your ears, not in your legs.

The brain is like a security guard who is always on duty. If it finds any kind of issue that could potentially be a threat, it will power down the system to ensure safety. What constitutes a threat? Almost anything. An uncomfortable room temperature, sleeping in an awkward position, or the angle of your head during a lifting attempt all could be something the brain decides is a threat. When that happens, the security guard goes on duty and we are left with what he decides is safe. This can result in large percentages of strength and power being stripped from the system. It can also manifest as pain.

Pain is simply a message to the body that something is wrong. In the case of severe pain, something is very wrong. The brain wants you to stop. Once an injury has happened, the brain locks the system down so that person will stop hurting themselves. Muscles in the neighborhood seize up to protect the injured area and the athlete is functionally immobilized. It’s quite an elegant system, when you think about it.

The Bad Old Days of the Squat

Some of you old-timers probably remember the old trends in squatting technique. I’ve been in the weight training game for almost thirty years now, and I can remember having next to no coaching. We just got under the bar, went as low as we could go, and then found a way out of the hole. Remember “toes up” squatting? How about the sit back-back-back squat, where it damn near was a good morning before we started bending our knees? I’ve tried them all, and been punished for doing so.

Regretfully, some of these techniques are still taught today. In an attempt to get their weight as far back into the heels as possible, many lifters been coached to sit as far back as they can before beginning to lower their bodies and the bar. Some lifters bend the knees first and the hips have to catch up, which is just a hot mess.

The biggest issue with all of these variations is that they kick up our threat response. 

What Is Bone Rhythm?

In the squat (or lunge), the bone we are speaking of is the femur. When the leg moves during the squat, the pace of the proximal head of the femur in relation to the distal head determines whether or not we are in rhythm. In other words, how fast is the hip bending compared to the knee? In a sit-back squat, the hip begins to move before the knee begins to bend, so the pace or rhythm is off. We are looking for a synchronicity in the flexion of the two joints. If the hip moves an inch, the knee should move an inch. That is bone rhythm.

Hinging at the hip, or worse, bending the knees before the hip moves, disrupts this rhythm and can set off a threat response. Even if the joints start together, one of the two can get ahead of the other and disrupt the rhythm. This sends a message to the body to stop, and the system-wide lockdown begins. Bone rhythm eliminates this threat in the squat.

Experiment With Bone Rhythm

You don’t have to load a bar up with a ton of weight to experience the benefits of bone rhythm. Stand up and try this with just your body weight. Remember, you are trying to synchronize the bending of the knee and hip so that they mirror each other. It might take you a few tries to feel it, but when you do, you will know.

Almost out of the gate you will feel two major benefits: 

1. The movement becomes smoother. It’s like the brakes have been taken off, and you slide into the bottom position versus grind to it.
2. Your range of motion will almost immediately improve.

I was working with an intern the other day, and he couldn’t hit an ass-to-grass squat without his heels coming off the ground. In ninety seconds, I explained bone rhythm to him, showed him what I wanted, and asked him to try it. The very next rep, he hit bottom and his heels were firmly planted on the ground. 

In that example, there was a visible threat response in his squat. His ankles would begin to neurologically tighten to protect him, limiting dorsiflexion. When his rhythm was corrected, his ankles were not put on lockdown by the CNS, and he was able to squat fluidly without any restriction.

Don’t rush the movement. Slow down to feel the rhythm, until it becomes automatic.

As you squat, remember that speed is irrelevant. Your first time out, you will likely dive down into the squat. That’s because the only way to get this sensation is to speed it up. I urge you to really take your time. At first, go as slow as possible. Have a training partner or coach scrutinize your movement so he or she can alert you when the rhythm gets lost. It won’t take long to identify how to pair up the two joints. Within moments, you will find a cozy groove. Don’t speed the process up until you can automatically pair the joints.

This technique can accommodate many of the engrained motor patterns you already have. If you insist on sitting back as far as you can, you can still maintain a quality bone rhythm while forcing your hips back. If you are a “straight down” squatter, you are probably close to doing this already. Just monitor your speed and become comfortable with the idea of bone rhythm before loading a heavy attempt.

More Paths to Squat Nirvana

• It Starts With the Squat: Using Orthoses to Correct Position
• Video: How to Anchor Your Feet for a Monumental Squat
• The Lowest Man Wins: 7 Keys to Hip Power and Mobility
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Chris Holder.

The post Get the Rhythm in Your Bones for Safer Squats appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Question #1: Improving Leg Speed and Leg Strength

READER: I’m a track athlete who is seventeen years old. I primarily do the 100 and the 200 along with shot put. I would like to improve my leg strength, especially my posterior chain to improve in my sprints. As well, I’d like to build a nice physique to complement my performance. I weigh around 175-180 and I’m 5’11-6’0. My best back squat is 275×3 and front squat is 195×5. My best power clean was 195×2. The best trap bar deadlift I had was 285×3. The best bench press I had was 205×1. What do you suggest I do to accomplish my goals while lifting four or five times a week and sprinting two to three times a week?

CHARLES SAYS: Okay, there is a lot going on with this question, and while I don’t have enough specifics to give you concrete advice, I think I can provide a few avenues of additional inquiry for you:

The first thing that jumps out at me is that you might be trying to accomplish too many varied objectives simultaneously. For starters, if you’re training and eating properly, the physique goals should pretty much just fall into place anyway, so let’s confine the rest of this discussion to training.

Training for sprinting and track athletics is about volume and balance.

In my opinion, lifting four to five times per week is far too much lifting, particularly if you’re also on the track two to three days a week, and especially if/when you’re in season. To give some context for this, many of the world’s strongest athletes lift only three days a week, and that’s all they’re doing. You’ve got the additional demands of the track work on top of everything else. So my first and really primary recommendation is that you should lift perhaps one to two days a week in season, and two to three days per week off-season.

Second, any athlete who is lifting to improve his or her performance in another sport needs to heavily emphasize the concept of training economy. In other words, employ the 80/20 principle at every opportunity – seek to get the most gain with the least cost, rather than trying to do everything and anything with the hopes of deriving maximum possible benefit.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is to emphasize proven standard lifts such as the ones you mentioned in your question. Stick to the three to six rep range for the most part, and seek to constantly better your weight-room performances – but not at the expense of technique, of course. On a three-day lifting week, I’d deadlift once, and squat and bench press twice. Add in one to two assistance movements on top of that for each session, and you’re good to go.

Thanks for your question, and I hope that helps that helps to give you some sense of direction.

Question #2: Using NSAIDS for Recovery

READER: I sometimes (okay, often) use NSAIDS so I can train again sooner (or sleep after a hard workout). Am I killing my gains?

CHARLES SAYS: There has been research recently that strongly suggests chronic NSAID use does in fact impair the muscular hypertrophy process.

That being said, NSAIDs can be an effective tool – if used intelligently. First, if NSAIDs allow you to train where you wouldn’t otherwise be able to, then I’d say the upside is worth the downside, at least acutely. In other words, do you make more progress by training with NSAIDs or by not training at all?

There is another important consideration here, though, which is, “Why are you in pain in the first place?” While I’m fine with temporary NSAID usage while you’re simultaneously doing whatever you can to diagnose the problem causing the pain, that’s quite different than using NSAIDs as a “cure” for the problem itself. So the best way to view NSAIDs is as a stopgap measure to bridge the span between your first symptoms and the resolution of those symptoms.

Question #3: Why Am I Not Seeing Results?

READER: I’ve been doing an upper/lower split plus thirty minutes cardio every other day, plus getting a handle on what I eat. Three months, and no visible change. I’m about ready to give up. What do I do?

CHARLES SAYS: Based on your question, I’m guessing you’re probably on the more novice end of things. If that’s indeed the case, then I’d recommend whole-body sessions three to four days per week rather than upper/lower splits. The reasoning for that goes like this: If, for example, your max squat is less than 225lb, then you’ll recover from your squat workouts in about one to two days. If that’s the case, and you’re only training lower body twice a week, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunity for growth.

Another thought is to make sure you’re consistently and accurately monitoring your workouts as well as your nutritional intake and bodyweight. I bring this up because I’ve been hired by people who claimed they weren’t making progress, and then upon digging a bit deeper, I found that they weren’t monitoring things carefully enough to ascertain whether or not they were making progress or not.

Keep in mind that you can make visible changes in your body (i.e., weight loss) through diet alone, so if you’re training that much and still not seeing progress, I have to suspect you aren’t monitoring accurately enough and/or your calorie intake is too high for your current energy expenditure.

Stay patient – your program and method of assessing results might need a small tweak.

Question #4: Consolidating Workouts

READER: Because of my crazy work schedule, I have to pack all my workouts into three consecutive days per week. Is there a good way to do that?

CHARLES SAYS: I’d do a moderate lower-body session on day one, a hard upper-body session on day two, and then an extremely rigorous full-body session on day three. Essentially, on day three you want to train so hard that you’ll need a four-day recovery period. Not ideal mind you, but probably the best approach given your circumstances. You can certainly play around with the details, but for certain day three must be a very, very hard session.

Question #5: Measuring Calories on Machines

READER: Which cardio machines have accurate calorie readouts? I can do the same workout on three different treadmill brands at my gym and get three very different results for calories burned!

CHARLES SAYS: None of them are accurate. But you can still use these readouts to monitor relative progress from session to session, even though they aren’t likely to be accurate.

Question #6: Post-Workout Beers

READER: I have great lifting partners. We work out hard three to four times per week, every week. Problem is, we almost always go to the bar afterward. Is this killing my gains?

CHARLES SAYS: Not my area of expertise, but it’s certainly not a “best practice” unless you’re ordering protein shakes.

“Hey guys, I’m here for the post-workout.”

This Week’s Training

This Week’s Volume: 127,460 Pounds (Last Week: 112,983 Pounds)

Significant Lifts:

• Close-Grip Bench Press: 185×9
• 2.5” Deficit Pull: 405×9
• Military Press: 100×10

Just for reference, this is week three of an eight-week hypertrophy phase, and it’ll be followed by a one-week deload, which I’m definitely in need of as this was the most training volume I think I’ve ever posted.

Despite high fatigue levels, I actually posted three lifetime personal records for reps this week (posted above). I’m guessing this is probably due to the fact my rep-specific fitness adaptations (work capacity, in other words) are sufficiently large to offset that fatigue.

After the deload, I’ll change up my exercise menu fairly significantly and hit the ground running for another four-week cycle. The only other change to this next cycle is that my rep target will be eight (as opposed to ten, which is what I used for this cycle).

Thanks for all the great questions lately, please keep them coming!

Monday, June 29, 2015

Bodyweight: 200.6 Pounds

Volume: 36,490 Pounds

High Bar Squat

• Set 1: 45 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 185 lbs × 1
• Set 5: 225 lbs × 10
• Set 6: 225 lbs × 10
• Set 7: 225 lbs × 10
• Set 8: 225 lbs × 10
• Set 9: 225 lbs × 10

Stiff-Leg Deadlift

• Set 1: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 185 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 225 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 225 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 225 lbs × 10

Leg Press

• Set 1: 160 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 230 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 270 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 270 lbs × 10

45° Back Extension

• Set 1: 140 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 140 lbs × 9
• Set 3: 140 lbs × 10

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Bodyweight: 201.4 Pounds

Volume: 21,200 Pounds

Close Grip Bench Press (Pinkies On Rings)

• Set 1: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 170 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 170 lbs × 10
• Set 6: 175 lbs × 10
• Set 7: 180 lbs × 10
• Set 8: 185 lbs × 9

Incline Dumbbell Press

• Set 1: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 120 lbs × 10

Machine Row

• Set 1: 90 lbs × 6
• Set 2: 90 lbs × 6
• Set 3: 90 lbs × 6
• Set 4: 90 lbs × 6

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)

• Set 1: 70 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 70 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 70 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 70 lbs × 10

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Bodyweight: 201 Pounds

Volume: 34,225 Pounds

2.5″ Deficit Pull

• Set 1: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 185 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 225 lbs × 5
• Set 5: 275 lbs × 5
• Set 6: 315 lbs × 5
• Set 7: 405 lbs × 9 (Video Below)
• Set 8: 315 lbs × 10

19″ Box Squat

• Set 1: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 225 lbs × 8
• Set 4: 205 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 225 lbs × 10

Seated Leg Curl

• Set 1: 115 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 115 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 130 lbs × 10

Back Extension

• Set 1: +140 lbs × 10
• Set 2: +140 lbs × 10
• Set 3: +140 lbs × 10

Friday, July 3, 2015

Bodyweight: 200.4 Pounds

Volume: 26,845 Pounds

Bench Press (Dumbbell)

• Set 1: 80 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 160 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 180 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 180 lbs × 10
• Set 6: 200 lbs × 5
• Set 7: 180 lbs × 10
• Set 8: 180 lbs × 9

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Bodyweight: 201.8 Pounds

Volume: 8700 Pounds

Military Press

• Set 1: 95 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 45 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 65 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 85 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 95 lbs × 10
• Set 6: 100 lbs × 8

Lying Tricep Extension

• Set 1: 65 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 65 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 65 lbs × 10

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)

• Set 1: 70 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 70 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 70 lbs × 10

Close-Grip Lat Pulldown

• Set 1: 130 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 140 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 140 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 140 lbs × 10

Tricep Pushdowns

• Set 1: 140 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 140 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 140 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 140 lbs × 10

EZ Bar Curl

• Set 1: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 5: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 6: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 7: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 8: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 9: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 10: 75 lbs × 5
• Set 11: 75 lbs × 5

Check out these related articles:

• Last Week’s Smart Strength Mailbag
• 10 Articles for Safe and Effective Sprint Training
• Alcohol Impairs Hypertrophy and Messes With Your Hormones
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Post-Workout Beers: Smart Strength With Charles Staley appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Question #1: Should I Use the Mirror?

READER: Is it better to face the mirror on squats or to face away?

CHARLES SAYS: Each has a specific benefit and drawback. The benefit of watching yourself is that you have visual feedback on your posture and body position as you lift. This can be particularly helpful if you’re a beginner and/or if you have some type of asymmetry that you’re trying to straighten out.

There are benefits to lifting with and without a mirror

On the other hand, at some point, it’ll be useful to wean yourself off the mirror so that you’ll be better able to develop and trust proprioceptive feedback about your technique. This is especially important if you’re a competitive lifter, since you won’t have a mirror in competition.

So like most things in life, the correct answer depends on context – using a mirror is not objectively “good” or “bad.”

Question #2: How Can I Develop Bigger Legs?

READER: I am so scared of being seen as one of those people who “don’t train legs.” I do squats, leg press, leg extensions, and curls, and I work my calves until they hurt. Still, my calves are tiny while the rest of my legs have noticeable muscle increases and definition. What gives? Male 23 yo/165lbs.

CHARLES SAYS: A CAT scan recently revealed that I have no calf muscle at all – the only soft-tissue I have below the knees is fascia and scar tissue. This is likely your problem, as well. So keep squatting – and just wear long pants no matter how hot it is outside.

Question #3: What’s in a (Program) Name?

READER: Does a lifting program have to have a stupid catchy name to become popular? Fierce 5, Stronglifts, 5/3/1, Ice Cream Fitness (ICF – yes, really), PHUL, Greyskull, the list goes on. (Here are many more).

CHARLES SAYS: Yes. In fact, one of my own inventions didn’t do nearly as well as it could have because it’s called Escalating Density Training. See what I mean? That being said, just because it has a stupid or a catchy name doesn’t mean the program itself is stupid. 5/3/1 is a great program, for example.

Question #4: What’s the Deal With Glute Bridges?

READER: Glute bridges seem to be all the rage right now. Is this popularity justified?

CHARLES SAYS: Well, it’s a full-range hip extension against load, it’s safe, and it requires no special equipment. What’s not to like?

Say “yes” to glute bridges.

This Week’s Training

This Week’s Volume: 112,983 Pounds (Last Week: 100,458 Pounds)

Significant Lifts:

• 2.5” Deficit Pull: 385×10

Well, week two is in the books. This is officially the highest training volume I’ve ever logged, and more importantly, it’s quality volume. So far I’m staying healthy, with the sole exception of some tendonitis in my left knee.

Not too much more to say other than I’m just plugging away as hard as I can, trying to beat the previous week’s numbers every time out. Definitely some fatigue building up, though. In fact, this is the most volume I’ve ever racked up since I started keeping track of that metric years ago.

Next week will be peak week, and then the following week will be a deload. Enjoy the video and as always, keep those questions coming.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Bodyweight: 201.4 Pounds

Volume: 30.110 Pounds

High Bar Squat

• Set 1: 45 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 185 lbs × 1
• Set 5: 215 lbs × 10
• Set 6: 215 lbs × 10
• Set 7: 215 lbs × 10
• Set 8: 215 lbs × 10

Stiff-Leg Deadlift

• Set 1: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 185 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 225 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 225 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 225 lbs × 10

Leg Press

• Set 1: 230 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 270 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 270 lbs × 10

45° Back Extension

• Set 1: 130 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 130 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 130 lbs × 10

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Bodyweight: 201.2 Pounds

Volume: 16.935 Pounds

Close Grip Bench Press (Pinkies On Rings)

• Set 1: 45 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 165 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 170 lbs × 10
• Set 6: 170 lbs × 10
• Set 7: 165 lbs × 10

Incline Dumbbell Press

• Set 1: 100 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 120 lbs × 10

Machine Row

• Set 1: 90 lbs × 6
• Set 2: 90 lbs × 6
• Set 3: 90 lbs × 6
• Set 4: 90 lbs × 6

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)

• Set 1: 70 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 70 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 70 lbs × 10

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Bodyweight: 200.6 Pounds

Volume: 34,518 Pounds

2.5″ Deficit Pull

• Set 1: 275 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 185 lbs × 5
• Set 4: 225 lbs × 5
• Set 5: 275 lbs × 5
• Set 6: 315 lbs × 5
• Set 7: 385 lbs × 10 (Video Below)
• Set 8: 315 lbs × 10

19″ Box Squat

• Set 1: 95 lbs × 5
• Set 2: 135 lbs × 5
• Set 3: 185 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 205 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 205 lbs × 10

Seated Leg Curl

• Set 1: 115 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 115 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 115 lbs × 10

Back Extension

• Set 1: +130 lbs × 10
• Set 2: +130 lbs × 10
• Set 3: +130 lbs × 10

Friday, June 26, 2015

Bodyweight: 201.6 Pounds

Volume: 23,370 Pounds

Bench Press (Dumbbell)

• Set 1: 80 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 160 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 190 lbs × 8
• Set 5: 190 lbs × 8
• Set 6: 180 lbs × 8
• Set 7: 180 lbs × 8

Close-Grip Lat Pulldown

• Set 1: 120 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 130 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 130 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 130 lbs × 10

Tricep Pushdowns

• Set 1: 130 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 130 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 130 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 130 lbs × 10

Bicep Curl

• Set 1: 45 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 65 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 65 lbs × 10

EZ Bar Curl

• Set 1: 75 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 75 lbs × 8
• Set 3: 75 lbs × 8

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Bodyweight: 201 Pounds

Volume: 8050 Pounds

Military Press

• Set 1: 45 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 45 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 65 lbs × 10
• Set 4: 85 lbs × 10
• Set 5: 95 lbs × 10
• Set 6: 100 lbs × 8

Lying Tricep Extension

• Set 1: 65 lbs × 10
• Set 2: 65 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 65 lbs × 10

EZ Bar Curl

• Set 1: 65 lbs × 8
• Set 2: 65 lbs × 10
• Set 3: 65 lbs × 12

Check out these related articles:

• Last Week’s Smart Strength Mailbag
• 8 Common Squatting Mistakes (and How to Correct Them)
• Don’t Be That Guy With Chicken Legs
• What’s New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photo courtesy of CrossFit Empirical.

The post The Man In the Mirror: Smart Strength With Charles Staley appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The Good About Squats

To fall in line with the saying and the movie, we will start with the good.

1. You get to go shopping for new luggage!

Why? Because those old saddlebags you’ve been carrying around are going to shrink! No, seriously, when I’m performing squats regularly, my saddlebags disappear. I don’t know where they go and I don’t care. I just know that my side butt is gone!

2a. You will be the proud owner of some new hardware.

Yes, you might have to dust off the mantle, but it will be totally worth it as you start setting new personal records and collecting local age-group awards. Once I started a regular routine of strength training – including air squats, goblet squats, front squats, back squats, you get the idea – my run times started dropping. I should also mention that my actual weekly mileage also went down at this time. So, by running less and getting stronger, I’ve been able to PR in everything from the 5K to the half marathon. This is always a good reminder to me that everything is connected.

Age group award for the local Melon Run.

2b. You’ll have a different view of the guys – or them of you.

As you’re setting your personal records, you’re going to be passing a lot of guys. They don’t mind getting chicked as much when you’re giving them a nice view.

3. You will experience fewer injuries.

2013 was the year of injury for me. Between an unhappy psoas and peroneal tendinitis, my longest relationship with a man last year was with my physical therapist. Sadly, I’m not joking. And you know what the recurring theme was? Weak glutes! My PT prescribed lots of heavy weighted goblet squats and single-leg deadlifts. I’ve continued those exercises and have remained injury free (knock on wood).

The Bad About Squats

Now, this next section could be difficult to read. Don’t get me wrong, I love working out. I love throwing around heavier and heavier weight. I like hitting a new set of numbers with my back squat. But there are some drawbacks. For example, here is the “bad” you might encounter if you squat.

1. Guys will forget about all of your other incredible attributes.

Got a great sense of humor? Better make the jokes about your ass-ets or he’s not listening. Wicked smart? Better turn the chitchat into the physiology of padunkadunks or you’ve lost him. What can I say? Guys lose focus quickly when you’ve got junk in the trunk.

2. You will never find a pair of pants, especially jeans, that fit.

When you find jeans that are generous enough to accommodate your strong thighs and derriere, I can guarantee you will have a gap in the waistband. I don’t think I’ve bought pants in over three years that my seamstress (aka my mom) didn’t have to alter.

Mind the Gap.

3. Seeing your muscular glutes and quads will make guys dumb.

No, seriously, they will say things like, “If we got stranded somewhere I could eat off your ass for weeks.” Really? Is that supposed to be a turn on? Yeah, not quite the panty dropper they were shooting for.

4. You will have to give up smiling for people to believe you.

What? You know you can “never trust a big butt and a smile.” Now be honest, you just sang that line like Bell Biv DeVoe, didn’t you? If you didn’t, I’m betting you’re under thirty.

The Ugly About Squats

And now the hard part, the ugly side of squats. Honestly, there is no ugly part to squats, unless you’ve got poor form. Of course listen to your trainer, but some things to keep in mind when you’re squatting:

• Keep your knees behind your toes.
• Keep your chest up.
• Have your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
• Keep your weight in your heels (you should be able to wiggle your toes).
• Don’t let your knees fall in when you’re squatting. Press your knees out.
• At the top of your squat stand all the way up to stretch your hip flexors.
• Have fun! There are so many squat variations that you can do something new every day. From air squats to pistol squats, find something that challenges you.

So, the big question is what you gonna do with all that ass? I can tell you what I’m going to do with mine – keep on squatting. The heavier the weight, the better.

Photo 1 courtesy of CrossFit Impulse.

The post The Good, Bad, and Ugly About Squats for Female Runners appeared first on Breaking Muscle.